Southern Alberta offers geological oddities

Alberta is home to some of the greatest museums and landscapes in the world.

We've got the Tyrrell and the Royal Alberta and the Glenbow museums. And we've got some of the biggest, most magnificent mountains, prairies, badlands and iron concretion balls.

What? You've never heard of the concretions? But our collection is one of the largest in the world . . . .

Obviously, it's time to stuff the kids into the car for another road trip, this time to an otherworldly landscape right here at home.

Red Rock Coulee

Red Rock Coulee is a 324-hectare Natural Area 56 kilometres south of Medicine Hat. Driving there through southern Alberta's typical grasslands is nothing unusual: Tumbling tumbleweeds blowing across the two-lane highway, the prairie stretching into the hot day haze, and birds and an occasional pronghorn deer to catch your eye -- but that's about it.

Then the landscape slowly climbs, the paved road takes a hard left and you depart the countryside you know. A small sign directs you to the top of a hill and a gravel parking lot. There are no attendants, fees, gift shops or outhouses. A barbed wire fence with a zigzag gate to walk through . . . is it.

Your kids will think you've gone loco, but get them out of the car anyway -- just beyond the fence, the hill drops off and the trip to another planet begins.

The song of the meadowlark breaks the silence while the warm wind carries the festive scent of prairie sage. The semi-arid coulee gives way to the parched landscape of prickly pear cactus and prairie crocus, where huge red spheroids ranging from regular old boulders to minivan-sized behemoths seem to be growing out of the slopes, frozen in mid-roll.

It's like a backdrop from a Spielberg/Lucas movie -- at any second a giant three-eyed alien with a purple velvet bag should come along to pick up his spilled bag of red marbles.

Except that this is all natural -- no Hollywood tricks here.

Concretions, or iron balls, are sandstone spheres that were formed in the dark grey Bearspaw Formation shale sediment that they rest on. As water moved through the soft parent material, iron minerals migrated together, possibly using a shell or rock as nuclei to cling to. As more collected, the round balls slowly formed, more resistant to the erosional forces of rain, snow and that always-prevailing wind than the surrounding soft shale.

With the balls eroding at different rates -- some are still perfect, while others are crumbling away -- Red Rock Coulee is a science class waiting to happen. The best part is that the kids won't know they're being schooled!

Take a picnic lunch (especially water) and enjoy walking around the coulee. Be forewarned, though, that sturdy walking shoes are a great idea. The cactuses are sharp enough to pierce canvas shoes and the bentonitic clays that wash from the bedrock are extremely slippery or sticky, causing outrageous spills.

You're also in the heart of rattlesnake country, but don't let that stop you from going. They'd rather avoid you, and will usually dart away before you know they're there. If you do hear a warning rattle, stop walking, quickly figure out where the sound came from and retreat slowly in a safe direction. And keep in mind that you're much more likely to see jackrabbits, mule deer, lizards and Richardson ground squirrels.

Etzikom

Since you're in the neighbourhood and a piece of homemade apple pie or a bowl of ice cream would be tasty, head over to Etzikom and to another oddity -- the Historic Windpower Interpretive Centre. Not only will you see the evolution of windpower, you'll see one of the province's best community museums. A drive through Etzikom suggests that its peak economic days are over -- or least in a slump -- but the museum shows just how dedicated the community is to keeping the town alive.

Housed in a renovated old school, the museum depicts southern Alberta's early homesteading days. The displays are outstanding -- as good if not better than larger centres. There's an old main street where you can sit in a barber's chair, an old hotel and a hardware store complete with supplies. The natural history area has loads of fossils and the aboriginal history is presented proudly with a wonderful collection of arrowheads.

Outside, creaking and moaning in the wind, are 20 windmills representing the history of harnessing the wind in Alberta. You won't find any of the sleek white monsters that line the ridges in the Crowsnest. Instead, you'll learn how farms utilized the wind to draw water from the aquifers deep underground.

Back inside the museum, belly up to the antique cafe counter and ask for a slice of Pearl's apple pie -- while they're scooping the ice cream, sit and spin on those red-topped chrome stools!

Directions

To reach Red Rock Coulee and Etzikom, drive southwest of Medicine Hat on Highway 3 for 24 kilometres. Just before Seven Persons, turn south on Highway 887 for another 23 kilometres. Watch for the road to bend east: At that point a sign directs you straight to Red Rock Coulee. To get to Etzikom from there, head back to Highway 887 and continue south towards Orion for 22 kilometres. Turn west on Highway 61 (Red Coat Trail) for 23 kilometres and watch for the windmills on the south side of the road. To get back to Medicine Hat, head straight north out of Etzikom on Highway 885, which joins up with Highway 3 to return you to the 'Hat.